Does Jared Allen Have Friends at the NFL?

I found this interesting, in part because the Packers play the Chiefs this week. I visited the NFL.com Pro Bowl voting page this morning. It is just what you’d expect it to be — lots of yeah rah stuff about Pro Bowl history, etcetera. In fact, most of the content dates back to last year. The other articles are: “Sprint presents 2008 NFL Pro Bowl Balloting,” “Photo Gallery: Pro Bowls of the 1980s,” “One final Bowl for Barber,” “Rookie Young comfortable at Pro Bowl,” “Nearly 70 million All Star votes cast,” “Palmer honored by Pro Bowl MVP,” and “NFL holds Pro Bowl celebrity golf classic.”

There was one exception. The top story on the page — the page where NFL fans stop before launching their official Pro Bowl ballot — carries this headline: “Chiefs DE Allen Making his presence felt.” It is an Associated Press story from October 25 and what we in the business call “a puff piece.”

Consider: “His eight sacks are tied for the league lead and seem to signal like oncoming headlights that in his fourth season, the 6-foot-6, 275-pounder is ready to take his place among the NFL’s elite defensive linemen…In addition to his sacks, Allen has forced two fumbles and utilized his long wingspan to knock down four passes while energizing a drastically improved defense that is, without question, the major reason the Chiefs (4-3) enter their bye week as the surprise leaders in the AFC West.”

Aaron Kampman has eight sacks. Where is his front-page Pro Bowl puff piece?

Actually, because Kampman is NFC and Allen is AFC, they don’t compete directly against one another. But I’d be pissed if I were a DE in the AFC.